Week XXIV

USA – Hawaii, Oahu

I am not really in a writing mood since it’s gotten past 1 am and I have to catch a plane in a few hours. So, I’ll make it perfect if you’re not in a reading mood at the moment..
Greetings from where even the cash machines say ‘yes, you can’, fake 9-dollar notes showing the current president are sold and everybody’s gone surfin’,..

..starring: Honolulu, Diaond state monument, the USS Bowfin at Perl Harbor, the USS Arizona Memorial and American pie on the 4th of July.

Next Stop: Seattle (hopefully not sleepless)

Update (Week XXIV)

Update (USA – Hawaii)

It’s been 24 weeks since I visited a country where they drive on the right side of the road. But that’s certainly not the only difference here. It’s the country where you’ll get a 130 dollar fine if you cross the streets in a wrong way, where they play the national anthem on the beach toilets – actually, where you should use the word restroom or accept being hated, where the national flag is displayed on every corner and where they show advertisements for the war on TV.
Although, Hawaii is the last of the 50 states and I was told it was ‘no shirt, no shoes, no problem!’ a few years ago, things have changed. I was forbidden entry and asked to leave because I didn’t wear shoes at Perl Harbor. Their explanation was their fear of getting sued if I’d hurt my feet (come on, I’ve walked on fire and the probability of all the guys slipping with their flip-flops is higher than the sensibility to pain of the soles of my feet). Nevertheless, I took the one and a half hour bus ride again and drove there a second time to enjoy a few hours of American pride.

Also, I went surfing for the first time ever..

Tomorrow, I’m going to find out how America goes crazy at its Independence Day. ..and if a Korean missile will hit me on my head ..as it is only the evening of the 3rd of July yet.

Week XXII – XXIII

Fiji – around Viti Levu

Somehow, I lost a week. Just kidding – I’m not very time consistent and thus write this for what happened in the last two weeks. Well, soon I’ll be off to Hawaii and by crossing the date line I’ll get myself a day back. I’m going to stay there till the seventh of July, heading further to Seattle afterwards.

Back on Fijis biggest island Viti Levu I went on a few day trips before making my way down to the coral coast and pacific harbour. There the shark dive I intended to do was almost washed away by lots of rain. I managed to go diving one day later and although the visibility was not the best and I’m not a big fan of just diving down and watch dangerous animals being fed, it was a really good dive. We saw grey, black- and white tip reef sharks, a lot of bull sharks, a nurse shark and masses of other fish.
I did a bit of jungle walking, reading and snorkeling – where I managed to see a small sting ray, a sea turtle, two white-tip reef sharks and to dive up an old mask and snorkel.

For the optical documentation I leave you with orchids, fire dances, coconut trees, mud and kids ..while I try to figure out what I have and have not do to get into the US.

Week XX – XXI

Fiji – Nadi and Yasawa Islands

Walking barefoot through sand (and dead corals – ouch!), taking only cold showers (caused by the lack of hot water), a lot of fresh fruits like pawpaw (Papaya – more vitamin c than a couple of apples), pineapples and bananas, generator powered electricity that is sometimes down, snorkeling with reef sharks and manta rays – and cutting the feet on slippery paths. All that describes the island life quite well.
At first, it might seem as there is little to do in these small paradises, but there’s always more than just lying at the beach in the sun. Although, just relaxing in a most comfortable hammock with some ice cream and a bottle of water, a good book and the view below palm trees onto the sea is one of the most chilled out things I’ve ever done. So what else did I do? I learned card tricks, card games (I admit, most of them were drinking games), improved in kayaking, snorkeling, walking on almost anything barefoot, managed to read a book and to start a new one – come on, that’s a lot in two weeks. Further, I took part in social kava drinking, talking and making music with local people which is so much enjoyable and missing in most ‘modern’ cultures.

Chronological.. After arriving in Nadi, where I stayed two days to get used to the different environment, I booked a travel and accommodation pass and went on to the so called Yasawa island group in the West of the country. I stayed at Beachcomber island, went further up to Kuata, Korovou and the Coral View resort – in the northernmost part of the islands. Afterwards, I was heading down again with stops at Manta Ray Island and South Sea Island – the smallest, where it took about five minutes to walk around the island – at low-tide. Every island was quite different and since the meals are included in the accommodation (since there are no shops on the islands to buy stuff) and most of the resort offer some additional evening program like fire dances and local music, it is not that expensive as it may seem and well worth the value.

I’m back in Nadi and will do some stuff around here and most likely head over to the south of the mainland, the Coral Cost, for a few days before I’m going to leave Fiji and fly over to Hawaii in about a week. Take a look at the Yasawa Island life, sunsets and fire-dancing..

Week XIX

Australia – Byron Bay to Brisbane

All of a sudden the rain clouds cleared and it was fine again. Nevertheless, I went by bus to Brisbane to spend some days there. From there, I went on a day trip up north with Silke. I met her in the hostel we both stayed in. We met some of her friends there and ended up at Birbie Island. Another two days I spent on a tour to Moreton Island with four fellow travelers. We went boarding on sand dunes, snorkeling at ship wrecks, hiking and swimming in a nice lagoon, which I would rather call lake. The time out of the city was really enjoyable. Although, I also liked the days in Brisbane. Except of one threat on my life there is not really much that happened.
I was able to clean and repair my tent. Now, I successfully made it to Nadi on one of the main Fiji Islands.

Brisbane at night and on Moreton Island..

Fiji is different. I’ll write more soon, as far as I find Internet connections.. if not, imagine me chilling around some awesome beaches.

Uh, btw.. no cell phone signal for me here! (and I’m off to the islands)

Update (Week XVIII)

Update (Australia – Byron Bay)

The power in the place here is down again. Water is almost everywhere; some of it made it’s way even into my little, cosy tent. The weather forecast shows storms and rains all over the east coast at least for the next few days. I think that’s a good time to leave this place. Well, at least to the next bigger city – although I’m getting quite used to the idea of heading over to Fiji soon. So, up to Brisbane is the plan for tomorrow.

Even though the bad conditions kept me from surfing, doing some walks and enjoying the beach, I like this small, laid back hippie town.

Week XVI – XVIII

Australia – Sydney to Byron Bay

It took some time, but I finally managed to get out of Sydney. I met quite a lot of interesting people there, which makes it always a bit harder to leave. I started travelling up the east coast with stops in Newcastle, Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour and Byron Bay. The weather stayed really good until I reached Byron Bay, which sucks because I wanted to try surfing here. Still, I went on a wine tasting tour around Hunter Valley, on a kayaking trip trough mangroves and a sunset boat tour (without dolphins) among other things. So I guess I shouldn’t complain about the weather at the moment. Although, I’m camping here at the Arts Factory and it seems like there is some water leaking through the outer layer of my tent. You can imagine that I’m not really happy with that. I’ll have to think about something more effective than the the muesli bar wrapping I’m currently using to keep my inner tent dry. Also I keep myself successful from doing my laundry since it started raining. It’s good that the showers started working again!

Another thing I’m not very happy about is that I got a flight from Brisbane to Fiji on the 31st. So I probably won’t make it to the Great Barrier Reef – where I would have loved to go diving. Also I would miss out on the whole outback, the west coast and the north of Australia. In the south I’m not really interested now anyway. Well, I’ll figure something out.

Sydney at night, Newcastle, vineyard in hunter valley, flying fox in Port Macquarie, kayaks, beach climbing, a kitschy sunset and at Byron Bay at last..